response: Hello, my name is Sam and I am the human.

send: Hello Sam. Well, one way or the other this will be over soon.

response: Thank goodness.

send: Had enough, have you? HOw did you come to be a participant?

response: I teach language theory and am writing on this subject.

send: Well, have you interacted with many of the bots today?

response: No, none. I'm not a judge. I've interacted with the humans. Are the bots more fun?

send: Well, you made me laugh. I think the bots are pretty abysmal, frankly. Which makes me feel better, in a way.

response: If it helps, you're the most interesting judge so far. Please don't ask me about sports.

send: OK. Although in my last conversation with a confederate I talked about yankees and red sox.

response: Be better than a bot. Try some more interesting topics.

send: OK, I'm off to the other entity now.

response: Please come back soon. A judge gave up on me earlier. It hurt my feelings. Others asked me about sports. A half-hour can seem a long time.

send: I'm surprised that any of the judges would ask you about sports. None seem like the sporting type.

response: I could say a few things but I won't. What brings you to be a judge?

send: I wrote about this contest for Salon a few years ago.

response: I read your piece this morning.

send: Well, was it sublime?

response: Sublime, superb, ineffable. Actually, I was a bit tired, but it looked good. What do you write on now?

send: Mostly I just do my day job, in which I write about OpenLaszlo. I also write for my website wetmachine.

response: Which concerns?

send: technoparanoia. Also, I have a few fellow bloggers who write about the nexus of society and technology.

response: Technoparanoia in the sense of what?

send: Fear of the future. Ted Kaczynski. Technology taking over from us! Arrgh, the machines are coming!

response: Wouldn't you say however that there is also a new kind of futurism, an incessant declaration of each new technical genre as a new paradigm, etc.?

send: Sure. But that's the general subject. Although I also write a fair amount of general bullshit.

response: Ah, a blogger. What did you study in school?

send: As an undergrad I studied anthropology. MS in agricultural economics from Purdue. Then 24 years in computer industry. How about you?

response: Literature. So you're not the judge who asks about art theory?

send: NOt I. I just write general bullshhit. I"m off to the other bot now.

response: How's the other bot doing?

send: Not too good. But the best so far, I think.

response: What is it doing well, or less well?

send: For one thing, it is not offering to smash my face with a baseball bat. For another, it is not telling me contradictory stuff about where it's from.

response: Will it win the prize? At least, from your perspective?

send: The big prize? No.

response: You're probably a human.

send: